Lennon, Dylan, Alice, and Jesus by Greg Laurie

Author:Greg Laurie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Salem Books
Published: 2022-05-17T00:00:00+00:00

Farner wasn’t alone in that era. There were several other entertainers who had their fill of wine, women, and weed. If they weren’t dying like Gram Parsons or losing their minds like others, they were simply getting tired of the merry-go-round.

By the age of thirty, most of these rockers had seen and done it all. They drank top-shelf booze in the backs of limos, chased models around guitar-shaped swimming pools behind their luxurious mansions, fed raw steak to their pet cheetahs, and snorted more powder than Johnson & Johnson sold in a month.

When these artists reached the ends of their ropes, they figured out they needed something else in their lives. Some, like George Harrison, Pete Townshend, and Carlos Santana, turned to Eastern religion while others went the self-help or New Age route. But a surprising number of them turned to Jesus Christ. Those included Farner, Furay, Al Green, Donna Summer, Bernie Leadon of the Eagles, Joe English of Wings, Bonnie Bramlett of Delaney & Bonnie, Philip Bailey of Earth, Wind & Fire, Roger McGuinn of the Byrds, Dan Peek of America, Rick Wakeman of Yes, John Schlitt of Head East, Rick Cua of Outlaws, Reggie Vinson (who played and wrote songs for Alice Cooper), Graeham Goble of the Little River Band, Kerry Livgren of Kansas, Lou Gramm of Foreigner, and Randy Cutlip, a keyboardist for Three Dog Night. Many of these artists had been raised in Christian homes and returned to their spiritual roots, or they simply opened their hearts and asked Jesus Christ to come in—to live there.

That’s what Dion DiMucci did in December 1979. Known to his fans simply as Dion, he was raised in the Little Italy section of Brooklyn. He was christened as a Catholic when he was a baby but didn’t see the inside of a church again for decades. He began drinking at age twelve and was drugging a year later. The biggest narcotic of all—fame—came when his vocal group, Dion and the Belmonts, scored their first hit with “I Wonder Why” in 1958—Dion was just nineteen years old. Other singles followed, including early rock and roll classics “A Teenager in Love,” “Runaround Sue,” and “The Wanderer.”

On February 3, 1959, Dion was touring with Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. Richardson (“The Big Bopper”) under the banner of the “Winter Dance Party.” He had an opportunity to fly to their next gig in Clear Lake, Iowa, but the plane only had room for three passengers. Dion won a coin toss, but let Valens go in his place because he couldn’t justify paying $36 for a flight that would take less than two hours.

“A light went off in my head because my father paid that monthly for rent in the Bronx,” Dion later recalled to Forbes magazine writer Jim Clash. “So I thought, ‘I’m not going to spend a whole month’s rent just for a flight.’ My primary reason for not going was the $36! So I said to Ritchie, ‘Please, you go on the plane.

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